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It helps to think of this book as having been dropped into our universe from some strange anti-universe, where everything is reversed: Aikido doesn't involve movement, technique, or blending; Karate blocks are weak and punches come from the shoulder; and weight training means 10 pounds, pressed badly.

In this anti-universe, "Irimi" means "standing still, dragging uke around you, pushing their butts and clotheslining them." "Tenkan" doesn't exist because there are no curved lines (I assume there is some difference in gravity and the curvature of space). "Uke" is a person who will fall down no matter what you do (which means that gravity is probably much stronger there, and which might also explain why their punching is effective, what with the laws of inertia being reversed).

In our universe, when a master writes a book, he generally performs the techniques himself in order to present his art in the best light. In the anti-universe of this book, the master only shows how to punch and block and how to lift weights. All the other techniques are performed by two equally stiff yudansha (perhaps the atmosphere there is very dense) and a white belt woman for whom everyone falls down (that gravity anomaly again). The sankyo demonstrated by her would not cause any discomfort in our universe, so I must conjecture that electrical impulses are transmitted much more efficiently there.

This book shows a martial art which is extremely effective in that particular universe. If you ever fall through the hole between our two universes, you better have a copy. And if anyone from the anti-universe happens to pass you on their way into our universe, do them a favor and hand them a copy of one of our Aikido books, so they won't be totally helpless when they arrive.

Jim

DaveO

Registered: June 2002Location: Alberta, CanadaPosts: 543

Review Date:

Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 1

Pros:

None

Cons:

Everything

This was the first book I ever got on Aikido, before I started the Art.
Even then, I knew it was garbage once I started reading it.
Anyone in his mid-40\'s who calls himself a \'10th Dan\' is immediately suspect, of course - and this book supports that.
Terrible technique, terrible form. A basic philosophy so far from that of aikido it\'s funny.
I would rate Bennett somewhere around nikyu, perhaps ikkyu in skill - definitey not yudansha. The fear - and the reason I\'m posting this review - is that students such as myself read this trash and develop a very wrong idea of aikido and SD. Make no mistake - in regards to SD, an illegal idea. For instance; finishing an ikkyo by breaking an arm, sending an opponent\'s head into a curb - this isn\'t self defense; this is assault.
Do not buy this book - there are many good texts on the market to choose from; get one - or many - of them.

------------------------------Answers are only easy when they're incomplete.